Northern Highlands officials discuss annual violence report

Northern Highlands school board officials heard a presentation at their Oct. 22 meeting on last year's Violence and Vandalism Report, which included 14 confirmed acts of violence, substance abuse and bullying cases – much lower than in other districts, school officials said.

Vice Principal Michael Koth said statistics from the 2010-2011 Violence and Vandalism Report "pale in comparison to other school districts" and said it's a reflection of the school and student body.

"We are very fortunate to have motivated students," he said. "I think those numbers reflect that."

This report was presented in recognition of School Violence Awareness Week, which was the week of Oct. 15, and was created out of response to the school shootings around the nation. But it "also asks us to help recognize and prevent acts of violence," Koth said.

He said recognizing and preventing acts of violence are done in a number of ways, including curriculum, the school's transition project assimilating incoming students to the high school and distributing pamphlets to freshmen about recognizing and preventing violence in school.

Koth explained that violence is "transmitted through various ways, including gesture, communication and electronic communication, verbal as well."

The vice principal said for the 2010-2011 school year, there were five acts of violence and two substance-related cases. The acts of violence were two fights, two simple assaults and one criminal threat. As for the substance abuse cases, Koth said there was one under-the-influence of alcohol case and one student with drug paraphernalia.

"This resulted in seven out-of-school suspensions, one in-school suspension," he said. "And this occurred in locations throughout the school, including the cafeteria, stairwell and main lobby."

The presentation, Koth said, is also in recognition of the Week of Respect, which started Oct. 1, and is part of the Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying law passed last year.

Koth said the school had student videos, an anti-bullying campaign, the transition project and also distributed a school-climate survey, which they will compare and contrast from last year's results "to uncover any trends or anything we've overseen in the way of bullying in schools so that we can better respond," he said.

With respect to Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying, Koth reported there were 19 investigated suspicious acts of harassment, intimidation and bullying, with seven of those incidents "confirmed acts of bullying."

He said some of the targeted categories were sexual orientation, disability and other categories not listed by the state.

Students were placed "in fear of emotional harm and/or were the subjects of insulting or demeaning comments," Koth said.

"This resulted in five out-of-school suspensions, one in-school suspension and one Saturday detention," he said, adding that consequences are based on the severity of the incident and degree of emotional harm to the victim.

Koth thanked administrators, students, student coordinators and staff, which he described as "extremely professional and dedicated," and are at the "front lines every single day, setting expectations and following through with students."

School officials added that these preventative measures and respect activities are also reflective of the positives in the school.

Superintendent John Keenan said what he believes "is our greatest success in terms of establishing an environment of respect in our building," is "our class size," he said.

"It is our ability to present smaller classes to our students and the ability for them to form a relationship with their teachers," Keenan said. "It really means more than any kind of extra hardware that we can put in the building. We do have cameras, sure that has helped, that has helped more after the fact, when we're trying to deal with theft."

He added that what's not included in the Violence and Vandalism Report is theft, and "theft is a problem," he said.

"We always tell our freshmen, whenever you have 1,500 people in one place, there's going to be theft," Keenan said. "Whenever you have visiting teams, not to say that our own kids are not involved with theft, you take for granted the environment we have and you think nothing will ever happen. Well that's a problem, but what do we always say? Nothing was ever stolen from a locked locker."

The superintendent added, "but it's that relationship that we hope our students can form with our staff, not just our teachers, our custodians, as well. Also, the transition project where juniors and seniors are working with ninth-graders really has been a big improvement."